Connection block for use with carrier-current line traps



P" 1949- M. J. BROWN CONNECTION BLOCK FOR USE WITH CARRIERCURRENT LINE TRAPS Filed May 28, 1947 INVENTOR flyrozz Jfira N72.

ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 19, 1949 CONNECTION BLOCK FOR USE WITH CARRIER-CURRENT LINE TRAPS Myron J, Brown, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, East Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application May 28, 1947, Serial No. 751,069

7 Claims. 1

My invention relates to carrier-current linetraps, such as are inserted as a part of an overhead conductor of an alternating-current transmission-line, for the purpose of permittin the free passage of the Gil-cycle or line-frequency currents, while impeding the passage of super-imposed carrier-currents, of a carrier-current frequency or radio-frequency, said carrier-currents being utilized for protective relaying-communication, remote metering or switching, or for other purposes. These carrier-current iine-traps consist of choke-coils, made of heavy conductorcable adapted to carry the full line-currents, this coil being supported on a hollow cylindrical insulating support having a tuning-unit inside of the same, for providing the capacitor-branch of a parallel-resonant carrier-frequency circuit, the Other branch of which is the choke-coil itself.

My invention has particular relation to carrier-current line-traps which utilize a plurality of capacitors, of assorted sizes, which may be connected together in various series, parallel, and series-parallel combinations, for controlling the amount of capacity which i effective, and thus provide a means for tuning the trap to the particular carrier-current frequency which is being employed.

Heretofore, such traps have used condenser terminal-boards which had two terminals for each of the capacitors employed in the tuning-unit. It was necessary to make the desired terminalconnections by cutting and fitting jumper-wires, with insulating sleeves to suit, in order to provide the necessary combination of connections, so that selected capacitor-units could be connected in series, parallel, or series-parallel, to make up the desired amount of capacity, according to instruction-charts which were provided by the manufacturer. This procedure consumed considerable time, and required a fair degree of skill on the part of the workmen, and it was a job which had to be done by the user of the equipment, and could not be done by the manufacturer, because there are many different carriercurrent frequencies in use in different line-section of transmission-lines, and it is necessary for the customer, or purchaser of the equipment, to be able to tune the line-trap to whatever carrier-current frequency he may require.

The object of my present invention is to provide a novel form of connection-block, or terminal-board, for such carrier-current line-traps, whereby the terminal-connections may be made quickly and easily, without Wires; and can be made with a minimum of skill, from the standpoint of the purchaser; and whereby a connection-block construction is provided which makes it a simple and economical matter for the manufacturer to provide the necessary water-tight or weather-resistant construction which is required of all carrier-current line-traps.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, my invention consists in the systems, connection, combinations, parts, and methods of design and operation, hereinafter described and claimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a carrier-current line-trap embodying my connection-block in a preferred or illustrative form of embodiment,

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the connection-block, with a part broken away,

Fig. 3 is a top or front plan-view of the block, with the top-plate removed, and with a part broken away,

Fig. 4 is a schematic wiring-diagram of the tuning-unit, and

Fig. 5 is an end-view of the connection-block, with the end-plate removed, and with a part broken away.

In the drawing, my invention is shown embodied in a carrier-current line-trap which comprises an insulating hollow cylindrical coil-support I having a choke-coil 8 mounted thereon, and having end-brackets 9 which are adapted to be connected to the transmission-line conductor (not shown). Inside of the hollow cylindrical coilsupport I is a tuning-unit or capacitor-assembly, extending from end to end within said coil-sup port, and comprising a plurality of capacitors I0, of assorted sizes or capacity-ratings, and a supporting-rack l l therefor. One end of this capacitor-assembly is provided with a connection-block [2, whereby different capacitor-connections may be made, according to the required carrier-current tuning.

In the illustrated form of embodiment of my invention, there are six capacitors It, and the connection-block l2is provided with seven pairs of terminal-buses I3, one pair for each of the six capacitors, and one pair for the choke-coil 8. Each pair of terminal-buses I3 consists of two straight alined conductors in end-to-end relation, having nearly abutting inner ends which are insulated from each other, all of said pairs of terminal-buses being in spaced parallel arrangement in substantially a single plane. I also provide a plurality of spaced parallel cross-connectors l4, six such cross-connectors being used in the illustrated embodiment of my invention.

These cross-connectors consist of straight conductors which are disposed substantially in another plane, spaced from the plane of the terminal buses, said cross-connectors extending at an angle (preferably at right-angles) with respect to said terminal-buses. A solid insulating supporting-member or block I5 is provided, having solid separator-portions I6 for spacing and supporting the terminal-buses l3 and the cross-connectors M in their respective planes. The crossing-points of the terminal-buses l3 and crossconnectors M have pin-receiving holes I! in the terminal-buses l3, the cross-connectors l4, and the separator-portions l6 of the insulating block or supporting-member l5. A plurality of connector-pins l8 are provided, smaller in number than the number of crossing-points, for making selected connections between various terminalbuses l3 and cross-connectors I4. These connector-pins are shown in the form of headed screws.

In the preferred form of embodiment of my invention, the insulating supporting-member or block l5 has front and back surfaces 2| and 22 (or top and bottom surfaces) which are separated by a thickness greater than the spacing between the plane of the terminal-buses l3 and the plane of the cross-connectors l4, and said insulating supporting-member or block l5 has a plurality of parallel sunken supporting-seats 23, below both its front and back surfaces, for receiving said cross-connectors l4 and said terminal-buses |3, respectively, for spacing the same. This is necessary, in the preferred field of application of my invention, for two reasons, both to provide the insulating creepage-distance or insulation which is provided by the sunken seats 23, and also to make it an extremely simple and economical matter to provide a water-tight construction, by adding suitably gasketed top and bottom plates 3 and 32, respectively, and two end-plates 33.

An effective and economically desirable form of construction of the solid insulating supportingmember or block l5 is shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 5 of the drawing, in which the sunken seats 23 for receiving the cross-connectors M are provided by means of a plurality of parallel grooves 34 which are milled or otherwise provided in the front or top surface 2| of the block for receiving the crossconnector M, as shown in Fig. 5; and these crossconnectors M are in the form of metal strips which are suitably held in the bottoms of the grooves 34, as by means of holding-screws 35 (Fig. 3). In-the illustrated form of construction of my solid insulating supporting-member or block |5, the other sunken seats 23, for the several pairs of terminal-buses l3, are preferably provided by means of a plurality of holes 36 which are drilled in the block l5, parallel to each other, and spaced from the back surface 22 of the block; and the terminal-buses l3 are in the form of round metal rods, which are held in the holes 36 by suitable holding-screws 31, preferably extending in from the rear of the block, as shown in Fig. 2.

To provide additional insulating creepage-surface or insulation, the cross-connector strips M are shorter than the grooves 34 in which they lie, so that the ends of these strips are spaced from the ends of the grooves, as shown in Fig. 3. In like manner, and for the same reason, the outer ends of each pair of terminal-buses |3 are sunken below the end of the hole 36 in which said pair is disposed, and a screw-connection 39 or other means is provided, for connecting a terminal connecting-wire 40 (Fig. 3)., or insulated terminalconductor, to each of said sunken outer-ends of the terminal-buses I 3 within the several holes 36.

The terminal connections are shown diagrammatically in Fig. 4, with an illustrative arrangement of connector-pins or screws l8, disposed at various crossing-points, to illustrate a commonly used series connection of five of the capacitors It]. Any extra connector-pins or screws |8 which are not in use, can be kept in suitable holes 4| which are provided in the front ends of the end-plates 33, as shown in Fig. 3.

In the illustrated form of embodiment of my invention, as shown more particularly in Figs. 3 and 4, and nearly abutting ends of the six pairs of terminal-buses |3, which are connected to the six capacitors H), are disposed in the middle of the connection-block, between the central pair of cross-connectors I4; while the seventh pair of terminal-buses I3, which are connected to the terminals of the coil 8, have their nearly abutting ends displaced to one side of the center, so as to fall between the first and second crossconnectors I4. This form of construction provides a maximum facility for making the kinds of terminal connections which are required, whereby the various capacitors may be connected, either in series with each other, or in parallel with each other, or in series-parallel, in various combinations, across the terminals of the coil 3.

In the use of my invention, it will be observed, from Fig. 1, that the top or front plate 3| of the connection-block is accessible at one end of the line-trap. To make the desired capacitor-connections for the tuning-unit, or to change the terminal-connections for tuning to a different carrier-current frequency, all that is necessary is to remove the top-plate 3|, thus exposing the grooved front-surface 2| of the solid insulating supporting-member or block l5. As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the various cross-connectors M are numbered from to 3, and the positions of the various pairs of terminal-buses are lettered from A to G, so that the operator may make the necessary terminal-connections, by the use of a suitable number of connector-pins or screws 8, in the proper places to provide any required amount of capacity for radio-frequency tuning, in accordance with a manufacturers instruction-chart (not shown), after which the front or top plate 3| is reapplied, and the trap is in condition for use.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination, with a plurality of pairs of terminal-conductors for a plurality of electrical devices, of a connection-block for connecting said pairs of terminal-conductors in various combinations, said connection-block comprising: a separate pair of terminal-buses for each of said pairs of terminal-conductors, each pair of terminal-buses comprising two straight alined conductors in end-to-end relation, having nearly abutting ends, insulated from each other, all of said pairs of terminal-buses being in spaced parallel arrangement in substantially a single plane a plurality of spaced parallel cross-connectors comprising straight conductors disposed substantially in another plane spaced from the plane of the terminal-buses, said cross-connectors extending at an angle with respect to said terminal- .buses; a solid insulating supporting-member providing solid separator-portions for spacing and supporting the terminal-buses and the cross-connectors in their respective planes; the crossingpoints of said terminal-buses and cross-connectors having pin-receiving holes in the terminal-buses, cross-connectors and separatorportions; and a plurality of connector-pins, smaller in number than the number of crossingpoints, for making selected connections between terminal-buses and cross-connectors.

2. The invention as defined in claim 1, characterized by said insulating supporting-member having front and back surfaces separated by a thickness greater than the spacing between the plane of said terminal-buses and the plane of said cross-connectors, said insulating supportingmember having a plurality of parallel sunken supporting-seats, below both its front and back surfaces, for receiving said terminal-buses and said cross-connectors as the case may be.

3. The invention as defined in claim 1, characterized by said insulating supporting-member having front and back surfaces separated by a thickness greater than the spacing between the plane of said terminal-buses and the plane of said cross-connectors, said insulating supportingmember having a plurality of parallel grooves in at least one of its front and back surfaces for receiving the conductors lying in the corresponding plane.

4. The invention as defined in claim 1, characterized by said insulating supporting-member having front and back surfaces separated by a thickness greater than the spacing between the plane of said terminal-buses and the plane of said cross-connectors, said insulating supporting member having a plurality of parallel holes parallel to each other and spaced below at least one of said front and back surfaces for receiving the conductors lying in the corresponding plane.

5. The invention as defined in claim 1, characterized by said insulating supporting-member having front and back surfaces separated by a thickness greater than the spacing between the plane of said terminal-buses and the plane of said cross-connectors, said insulating supportingmember having a plurality of parallel holes parallel to each other and spaced below at least one of said front and back surfaces for receiving the pairs of terminal-buses, the outer ends of each pair of terminals being sunken below the end of the hole in which said pair is disposed, and means for connecting a terminal-conductor to each of said sunken outer ends within said hole.

6. The invention as defined in claim 1, characterized by said insulating supporting-member having front and back surfaces separated by a thickness greater than the spacing between the plane of said terminal-buses and the plane of said cross-connectors, said insulating supportingmember having a plurality of parallel grooves in its front surface for receiving said cross-connectors, and said insulating supporting-member having a plurality of holes parallel to each other and spaced below its back surface for receiving the pairs of terminal-buses, the outer ends of each pair of terminals being sunken below the end of the hole in which said pair is disposed, and means for connecting a terminal-conductor to each of said sunken outer ends within said hole.

7. The invention as defined in claim 1, characterized by the nearly abutting ends of different pairs of terminal-buses being disposed between a plurality of different pairs of cross-connectors.

MYRON J. BROWN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 290,845 Breckenridge Dec. 25, 1883 330,644 Vail Nov. 1'7, 1885 947,956 Agutter Feb. 1, 1910 1,658,718 Hardcastle Feb. 7, 1928 1,930,523 Landon Oct. 17, 1933 2,122,183 Schwarzer June 28, 1938 2,147,425 Bock Feb. 14, 1939 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 540,268 France July 8, 1922 562,382 France Nov. 9, 1923 

